It's not really radical or anything. Pretty simple really.
Way back in the 70-80s I noticed that most of the chrome parts on my 500 were suffering from rust in places not generally cleaned regularly, undersides of mudguards, reverse side of fork ears, inside of the headlight rim are good examples. Of course I live in a damp climate but I'm sure parts of the USA are the same, if not damp then humid for example. So I started to try and prevent this and found zinc paint was really good at stopping the rust. Even when scratched etc it still worked. I had mudguards which were still rust free 30-40 years on, same for fork ears. The trick is to ensure good coverage so I prefer brush on zinc paint, I used Isopon Zinc 182, not sure if that's available over there but if not something similar should also work as well.
To do the frame I use the welding holes Honda drilled into the frame, I use a chicken marinator to inject the paint into the frame, I fill the tube up entirely and then allow it to drain out into a suitable container so I can reuse the paint again and again. Takes a while to do a whole frame but it does work. I also do what I call flood painting on the rear mudguard brace, just flood paint under the brace after taping the exit shut. As soon as it's full you can then move on to another section, the idea is to stop water from ever gaining access, if it's full of paint it can't, that's my reasoning, same for the triangle braces on the outside, tip the guard upside down and flood those holes between the blade and the brace, once it's fitted you can barely see the paint, I tend to cover them with spray satin black paint.
Is it OTT, well yeah but the benefits probably won't be seen in my lifetime so my son who will inherit the bike will certainly benefit, plus the cost of replacing these parts more than compensates for the time and effort involved in doing this. I do this on all parts of the bike where you regularly see rust forming, parts that tend not to get cleaned or paid attention to, the inside of the bracing for the rear brake torque arm on the bottom of the swinging arm for example. Just food for thought, you don't have to do this.
